Posted on 10/16/2007 6:15:48 AM PDT by bobsunshine
Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005.
The company said it does not determine the requests' legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations.
In an Oct. 12 letter replying to Democratic lawmakers, Verizon offered a rare glimpse into the way telecommunications companies cooperate with government requests for information on U.S. citizens.
Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. Verizon does not keep data on this "two-generation community of interest" for customers, but the request highlights the broad reach of the government's quest for data.
The disclosures, in a letter from Verizon to three Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee investigating the carriers' participation in government surveillance programs, demonstrated the willingness of telecom companies to comply with government requests for data, even, at times, without traditional legal supporting documents. The committee members also got letters from AT&T and Qwest Communications International, but those letters did not provide details on customer data given to the government. None of the three carriers gave details on any classified government surveillance program.
From January 2005 to September 2007, Verizon provided data to federal authorities on an emergency basis 720 times, it said in the letter. The records included Internet protocol addresses as well as phone data. In that period, Verizon turned over information a total of 94,000 times to federal authorities armed with a subpoena or court order, the letter said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Key points:
"Verizon provided data to federal authorities on an emergency basis 720 times, it said in the letter."
"The information was used for a range of criminal investigations, including kidnapping and child-predator cases and counter-terrorism investigations."
"Verizon said it had received FBI administrative subpoenas, called national security letters, requesting data that would "identify a calling circle" for subscribers' telephone numbers, including people contacted by the people contacted by the subscriber."
The thing that never gets mentioned is that a lot of the tools available to the FBI, etc were ones already available during their investigations of the mafia. I don’t remember Dems being up in arms about that...in fact, they were in on the creation of those tools.
More Dem hypocrisy.
Personally, even with the thought of surveillance to fight terrorism that it was intended to interdict, the Liberals fear that eavesdropping for political purposes would prove EXTREMELY damaging to them, when the chain of money is uncovered on how the Hildabeast and the rest of the Socialists operate.
I still think those who scream loudest have the most to hide, but yet, I am sure they are the biggest bunch of illegal eavesdroppers, telephone-tappers, classified document-leakers in the world.
You can bet on how the MSM will parrot the DNC talking points on this one!
The term, “voluntary cooperation with law enforcement”, seems to be in the liberal dictionary under “unconstitutional”.
LOL.
LOL.
Clearly a violation of the civil rights of mass murderers and their right to carry out said acts. Let us move further aside and not hinder the rise of religious nazism.
> The Dems will be in a tailspin with this article. Way to go Verizon!!
You won’t be so happy about Verizon’s cavalier attitude about handing over your information to federal authorities if Queen Hitlery gets into power.
Always be vigilant about power grabs by the Feds, people. Once power is given you have to scrape and claw to get it out of their hands.
Just wait to Hillary gets control and snoops through your records for ANY reason as she may please. For those who say “if you have nothing to hide what is the problem” Hitler would agree.
Americans will be shocked, shocked I tell ‘ya. Then we’ll go back to watching Law and Order, Without a Trace, NCIS, 24, and all those other shows where the police and FBI apparently have PCs linked directly into the phone companies’ records.
I use Verizon Wireless.
The snooping done by the Liberals/Socialists/Democrats is the fear most would have, as they try to find out if there's any more "rich people" out there doing financial dealings that they haven't appropriated yet!
I know that, but it's always some trade-off between "security" and "privacy".
Quite a conundrum.
From the article;
“The Senate Intelligence Committee could draft a bill this week that includes relief for the carriers. The administration is seeking blanket immunity, which would extend to anyone sued for assisting the government — not just telecom carriers — in its post-Sept. 11 surveillance programs.”
My mind went to the “Flying imam’s” lawsuits.
That’s a good point. In a case like the flying imams, no one ought to be able to recover damages for being reported for suspicious activity unless they can prove that the report itself was false.
Yup, always be vigilant about these far-reaching powers granted to big government.
I’ve said time and time again here that these same people trumpeting the Patriot Act and non-warrant wiretaps under President Bush will learn to loathe those selfsame powers used by President Hitlery to destroy gun-owners, Christians, conservatives and dissidents.
Ed
Amen and amen. Hopefully our fellow conservatives will wake up.
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